Before reading
Full Disclaimer
I'm not being benefited by any means by writing this article. I just wanted to share my experience, using different kind of tools. All is based in my opinion after reviewing these password managers and shouldn't be taken as a suggestion to use one product or another.
As a developer I'm worried about the tools I use everyday and I took this space as a way of sharing my thoughts on it.
If you have some opinion about this post please let me know in the comment section.
So without further delay, let's get into the article.
Lastpass is totally fine
Lastpass is a great product, that's all. If you have a paid subscription I think you won't have any problems with it.
The problem comes when you analyze the free version of it. Recently Lastpass has changed the way you can use it's free version. Now you can only access your data either by Desktop or by the mobile app.
So this weekend I decided to migrate from Lastpass. I researched a lot about the bests password managers avaiable and I had two requirements:
- It must be a full featured password manager:
- 2FA, Auto fill forms, web extensions, mobile app
- It must have a very good free plan
Finally I get with a PM (Password manager), that filled out these requirements, Bitwarden
Advantages of Bitwarden
- It's open source. Nothing is more free as in freedom
- It has a extremely good ecosystem:
- Web extensions in all modern browsers
- Mobile app
- Desktop app
- Even CLI tools
- An easy way to import all kind of data
- End to end encryption
- 0 data breaches until now
- Personal and Business plans
So if you want to migrate your passwords, follow the following steps.
Migration process
First you'll need to create a personal account in Bitwarden. But currently the home page of Bitwarden don't show the create personal account button that clear.
So you'll need to scroll down up to the bottom and take a look at Bitwarden's pricing section.
As you may notice all the options are guided to create an organization account, therefore if you want to create a personal account you must click in the personal plans tab.
After that, the personal plans menu will be shown, and now you can create a free account by clicking the create a free account button.
Don't worry the paid plans are totally optional, and probably you'll get more of what you need with a free account.
Next you will be redirected to a signup page:
Advice: Create a fully memorable, long and secure master password. Since it's a master password you won't have any option to recover it.
Example of a good MP: MykeyBOARD-is#brokenSINCE2020
As you may notice it contains a lot of characters and numbers, but it's fully memorable, and there is a high probability of not forget it.
Now that you've signed up, you have to login with the credentials. Then you'll be redirected to your brand new Bitwarden vault.
Don't forget to verify your email.
Exporting and Importing all of your passwords
At this point, you must login into your Last pass account and enter into your vault.
Exporting
After that go to Advanced options>Manage your vault> Export
Click on that button and re enter your Lastpass master password.
After that, all of your passwords will be stored in .csv file in your local computer.
WARNING: All of the data that is stored in that .csv file will be just plain text. That means that your passwords won't be encrypted. So right after you import your passwords to Bitwarden (Or any password Manager), you must delete the password file.
Importing
This time I'll do it in the online vault, but you can do it with the app, or extension too.
- Go to your Bitwarden Vault
- Click on the
toolslink - Click on the import data option
- Select the Lastpass csv format
- Select the last pass .csv file you downloaded
- Click in import data
Now your Bitwarden's vault should have all of your passwords imported from Last pass.
If you have any errors importing the best option is to read the bitwarden Documentation
Installing the browser extension
Choose and Install Web extension
Installing the mobile App
Choose and Install Mobile app
Enabling Auto fill in Bitwarden
To enable the Autofill as the Last pass app does, go to Settings>Auto-fill> and check the Auto-fill service label.
Enable Bio metrics
If you want to unlock Bitwarden with your bio metrics, go to Settings>Security>Unlock with biometrics.
Deleting Last Pass account?
After importing my passwords and testing out Bitwarden, and it's features definitely I won't need Last pass again.
So what reasons do I have to leave my Lastpass account with all of my passwords out there?
If you think you won't need your Lastpass account again I recommend you to delete it. Or at least resetting it, to don't store any sensitive data in an inactive account.
Conclusion
Bitwarden by it self looks, from my perspective, a simple to use and more intuitive product, and it has everything you would expect from a good password manager.
These facts, combined with the restriction-less of using both, mobile and desktop, the options we get from Bitwarden (CLI, extension, Desktop/Mobile app) and the product being open source, were what made me change from last past to bitwarden.
Latest comments (42)
I've also migrated from LastPass to BitWarden recently and I'm loving it. My only issue is that when using Chrome browser with BitWarden extension, it never prompts to save credentials, and looks like I'm not the only one facing this: github.com/bitwarden/browser/issue...
Anyway, this is not going to stop me from using it. I'll switch browser if I have to :)
I switched from LastPass to BitWarden, too, after reading about their new free-plan rules earlier this year. BitWarden works a treat: after two months, I have no complaints whatsoever.
Nice article about the migration! I also recently moved to Bitwarden and love that it's open-source.
However, you should keep in mind to delete by overwriting the export-file and not "just" delete it in the file browser. Otherwise it could be restored in the future and leak all your passwords. This is a big security vulnerability!
In Linux I just do:
That will delete the passwords file without placing it in the trash
Yes and no. It will delete the file in the eyes of the user by freeing the linked data blocks on the drive. Physically the data is still there.
Therefore it is important to overwrite these data blocks, for example by using
shred -u -n 10 passwords.csv.Otherwhise these data blocks could be restored later.
Wow, really interesting!
You taught me something today 😄
Well, I am using UNIX pass manager. It is awesome, you may try.
I have migrated to bitwarden about one year ago. I am totally happy with bitwarden. It has also an option to create a family plan and share your desired passwords with your family members. Btw you can create your own password manager server.
There’s no free lunch, lastpass is at a stage they need to monetize more users, how do you know at a certain point bitwarden won’t do the same.
Thanks for sharing!
Typically, I don't use any password managers, just for security ;).
But I'll recommend it to my friends!
I think that password managers are really secure. In fact Bitwarden has never had a data breach.
I just don't have the habit of storing passwords ;)
Ever since I moved to Bitwarden I didn't look back even once. I got it in all my devices and absolutely love the browser extensions!
Hey, thanks for sharing this.
I was willing to pay the Lastpass plan but I haven't been able to do the payment (their platform doesn't let and support doesn't help me). I guess I'm moving to Bitwarden... And it's personal plan is cheaper :D
I'm glad you find it useful!
And I moved just yesterday xD It was so easy peasy I couldn't believe it xD
I did the same thing and I don't regret it at all.
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